One night in 1980 I was hosting a weekend Deaconlight. One of the last sets I played (at about 2:40 a.m.) included "Another Girl, Another Planet" by The Only Ones and "Single File" by a band called The PermaNeats. After the set, my phone rang, which was rare at that time of the night/morning. This guy says "Thanks for playing my song." At first I thought it was the singer for The Only Ones.
Turned out it was Mitch on the phone. He had rung me up at some point previously to ask if he could drop off a tape of his songs to play on my radio show. He dropped the tape off by my apartment one day and didn't say a whole lot about it.
That night when Mitch called me after I played his song, mentioned that the band was now called "The Prefabs" (which I wrote on the box). He played all the instruments on these songs (very Todd-esque, I thought).
Close up of the Permaneats reel-to-reel tape Mitch Easter gave me in 1980.
Shortly after that Mitch brought me another reel-to-reel tape with a couple of songs for me to play on Deaconlight, which of course I did.
Close up of the box to another Mitch Easter reel-to-reel tape from 1980.
After the demise of Deaconlight in 1981, I moved on to commercial radio at WKZL, where I hosted a new music program called "New Generation Show." I continued to stay in touch with Mitch, who had formed a band he called Let's Active. He sent me songs on reel-to-reel that I played on my show.
Let's Active "Room with a View," "Two Yous," and "Leader of Men."
Reel-to-reel cover from October 1982.
Soon after that, Let's Active signed with IRS and released this EP, Afoot.
